1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article storage structure for a small boat including a handle at a front portion of the hull, and an article storage box provided at the back of the handle.
2. Description of Background Art
A jet propulsion boat is a vessel, which is provided with a jet pump mounted at a rear portion of the hull. A jet propulsion boat is propelled by sucking water from the vessel bottom by driving the jet pump with an engine and splashing or spraying the sucked water rearward.
A jet propulsion boat is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-10-119882 entitled xe2x80x9cSTORAGE DEVICE FOR PROPULSION BOAT.xe2x80x9d The jet propulsion boat in this publication includes a handle in front of the hull, a seat at the back of the handle, and a dough box (article storage box) between the seat and the handle.
The article storage box includes a dough box body embedded at the back of the handle in the hull. An opening is provided at the upper end of the article storage box body, wherein the opening is arranged flush with the hull. The lid body is disposed on the opening.
By attaching the front end of the lid body rotatably on the hull via a hinge, the opening of the article storage box body can be opened and closed by swinging the lid body in the vertical direction.
In this way, the front end of the lid body is attached to the hull by means of a hinge for allowing a vertical swinging motion of the lid body. As an example, the hinge is constructed in such a manner that a bearing is formed on the hull side and a bearing is formed also at the front end of the lid body. A shaft is inserted into the bearings so as to allow the lid body to swing about the shaft freely. A cotter pin is attached at the end of the shaft so as to prevent the inserted shaft from being detached.
In other words, in order to attach the lid body to the hull so as to be capable of swinging freely, members such as the shaft and the cotter pin are required. Therefore, the number of components increases. In addition, since the number of the components is large, assembling of the hinge needs much time and effort.
Accordingly, it is difficult to lower the cost of the hinge because the number of components constituting the hinge is large and assembling thereof needs much time and effort.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an article storage structure for a small boat having a reduced number of components and being able to be assembled with less time and effort.
In order to solve the problem, the present invention is directed to a small boat including a bar-type handle disposed on the centerline along the length of the hull, an article storage box having a front hinge at the back of the handle and a lid that can be opened and closed in the vertical direction, and a seat disposed at the back of the article storage box, the front hinge includes a keyhole-shaped notch formed having a slit with a width smaller than an inner diameter of a round hole and continuing into the round hole, a bifacial shaft having an outer diameter corresponding to the round hole and being formed with two faces forming a width corresponding to the width of the slit, and a retaining member for preventing the keyhole-shaped notch and the bifacial shaft from establishing an angular relation in which they can be attached and detached with each other when the keyhole-shaped notch is rotated about the bifacial shaft, wherein the retaining member is disposed in the vicinity of the handle and one of the keyhole-shaped notch and the bifacial shaft is provided on the lid and the other one is provided on the hull side.
The round hole and the keyhole-shaped notch continuing into the round hole are provided on one of the hull and the lid, and the bifacial shaft is provided on the other one of those. By inserting the keyhole-shaped notch along the two faces of the bifacial shaft, the bifacial shaft is disposed in the round hole.
After setting the bifacial shaft into the round hole, the retaining member can prevent the keyhole-shaped notch and the bifacial shaft from establishing an angular relation in which they can be attached and detached with each other. As a consequence, the lid can be opened and closed in the vertical direction about the bifacial shaft.
Since the bifacial shaft can be disposed in the round hole only by inserting the keyhole-shaped notch along the two faces of the bifacial shaft, assembly of the lid can be facilitated.
In addition, the bifacial shaft can be disposed in the round hole only by inserting the keyhole-notch along the two faces of the bifacial shaft. Accordingly, the bifacial shaft can be fixed in advance to the other one of the hull and the lid. Therefore, the cotter pin that is required for preventing the bifacial shaft from being detached can be eliminated and thus the number of the components of the hinge can be reduced.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.